The "Somewhere In Time" Campaign
Origins The "Somewhere In Time" Campaign was inspired by the 1986 Iron Maiden album of the same name. (see Campaigns) Story Prelude "Woe to you, oh Earth and Sea, for the Devil sends the beast with wrath, Because he knows the time is short... Let him who hath understanding reckon the number of the beast For it is a human number, Its number is Six hundred and sixty-six." After the party defeated the Necromancer in the city of Megadon and leaving Willowdale, a new foe rears its ugly head on a silent planet, calling our heroes to fight it. This creature was an “Eternal”, a brand of monster who could take many forms. However, one thing remained constant within its forms; its grotesque face. Since the party had defeated it once before, they now know his appearance and should make its defeat easier. Unfortunately, the Eternal’s defeat only made his power grow stronger, making him a more dangerous force than ever before. Is this beast truly unbeatable? If so, will our party run to the hills, lead a brave new world, or die with their boots on? Main Story Our story begins with the party of Willowdale leaving their homeland on a quest to seek more adventure and thrill. After days of traveling south, the party comes across nothing truly notable aside from the odd town, full of people congratulating their victory. However, on the seventh night of their travels in the bleakness of the dark, someone spots something in the bramble. One of the party members saw a lanky figure, around 7 feet tall, scrounging at a pile of animal carcasses for food. Sensing movement, the figure slowly got to its feet, its height suddenly showing. While the party was too far away to be immediately harmed, the creature’s eyes began to glow with what seemed to be two pinpricks of fire. It suddenly took off deep into the woods where the dim light of a bonfire seemed to have begun. The party eventually decides to enter the forest, careful not to cut themselves on the thorns in the dark. They follow the guidance of the light, coming across a circular pit dug in the center of the woods. In the pit, a group of Kobolds seemed to have been performing some sort of ritualistic dance while the creature, now adorned in a cloak, watched over them. Seeing the party, it took off once again, and the kobolds become aware of the invaders, ready to attack. They were quickly defeated, and the party continued onward to the next town. The town named Paschendallia was brimming with joy, laughter and happy people galore. In the center of the town was a tall, black object that absorbed all light around it. Asking around, the party discovers that many years ago, The Object was brought to the town by a group of druids. While not much is known about how it came to exist, It is said that with a certain magical type of sand, a person could travel through time, though this is very illegal. In fact, as they were obtaining the information, a cart of prisoners was trotting off in the distance towards a prison. Running to catch up to it, the party is informed that one of the prisoners who's name is unknown started a small group of troublemakers to find the "sands of time" and illegally use the object for their benefit. After crawling into the back of the cart, the party discovers that the prisoners are all shackled to the inside of the cart. The party manages to obtain more information from them, and the leader of the prisoners explains that they had formed a cult around the time-travelling object and discovered how to use it. The leader (who did not remember his name, so referred to himself as “Six” which was his prison number) was freed by the party who led them to the object, bringing the sands of time with him. As they travelled, Six began to tell the party about a large scar on his face which looked like a large animal scratch. He told that he faced off with one version of the Eternal, and got horrible scratches all over his body. While only the one on his face is visible, there are many on his arms, legs and torso. Once at the Object, the party links arms as Six covers his hand in the Sands of Time and touches the Object, engulfing the party in a bright light. As the light dimmed down, the party noticed that they were in a war torn area. They look to the left and see a large tent with a red flag hung above it. The party approaches it and walks inside, seeing a war general with a large, glowing object coming from his chest. One of his soldiers approached him, offering to take the party away to a prison. The general agreed, allowing the party to be taken away. Once out of earshot, the soldier introduces himself as Benjamin Breeg, who was also a time-traveler. Not much is known about this soldier, but he did know Six, who acted obliviously. Benjamin explains the feud that has been going on between the two armies. The Axis General (The person they had just met) had killed the Eternal in that time dimension. However, when he died, a small portion of his power went to the general, making him highly powerful (but not invincible). Because of this, the Axis General went on a massive power trip, declaring ownership of the land. With this, another army named the “Alliance” rose up to rebel against his power. While the Alliances attempts to defeat the Axis had been fruitless so far, the party decided to sneak over to their side of the battlefield to join them in their quest to take down the Axis once and for all. As they were planning their war strategy, Six explained that he had something to kill the Axis general. It was a pill the size of his palm, and he told that with it, either he or one of the party members would have to dive into the chasm of the general’s chest and touch the soul inside to the pill, which would seal his power. While they were stopped briefly by a group of Axis soldiers, the party managed to sneak into the Axis General’s war tent. Taking him by surprise, the party paralyzed him and held him down. Ulric Dorn (Kaymin) stood up to the task, tying a long rope around his waist and diving into the abyss of the general’s body. Once inside, after a bit of trial and error, he captured the soul within the pill and was pulled out just in time before the general’s body turned to dust. After this, the party headed home, where they went to a church. Inside they met a priestess named Cirice, a beautiful woman with flowing blonde hair and red (albino red, not satanic red) eyes. Surprised to see Six with the party, she asks him to leave and explains that she wants the party to stick with him to investigate his odd behaviour. It is hinted the two have some sort of relationship, but it is uncertain. The party then steps outside and notices some job listings on a board outside of town. They choose to take a job that involves removing rats from the royal castle. They take the challenge, but unfortunately, Ulric Dorn becomes infested by the rats and his body is taken over, leaving the rest of the party no choice but to kill him. They then return to town and decide to head to the forest to kill the “reaper eternal” they met at the beginning of their adventure. With Jack Daniel’s (Cale’s) quick wit, he forms a circle out of leaves and ash found around the forest which transported them to the reaper, which they then killed effortlessly. (And then some more stuff probably happened but if we can be completely honest I kinda forgot and I never wrote it down) A few sessions later and several Eternals slain, it is revealed that Cirice was being controlled by her deity like a puppet since her church sold her soul to the deity as punishment. As such, due to her soul being taken by the deity to the bottom of his lake, Cirice was unable to leave Paschendallia without being killed. In response, the party set out to slay the deity, which ended up being this huge Cthulhu lookin' thing that the party killed in about 1 and a half sessions. With the deity slain, the party got Cirice's soul back, giving it to her and allowing Cirice to be free to go wherever she pleases. This comes back later, trust me. While travelling through time, the party encounters a man named Leo, who is the typical "flirty bard" archetype. They find him in a partially burned down library, and he spouts exposition for awhile, telling them where the next Eternal is. They obviously kill the Eternal soon after. Once back in their hometown, the party has to fight a group of kobolds who are pretty much task managers for the Eternal at this point. The party kiils most of them, except for one, who is curled up in a ball, crying. Sparing him, they learn his name to be Timothy, and he's a runt of the litter who hates fighting unlike his brothers. The party takes him in, allowing him to be protected by them. Jack Daniel proposes they teach him how to fight, Rixiron III wants to teach him discipline and Jazz (Lelia's character) mostly just wants to keep him in her backpack. After this encounter, a group of cultists known as the M.A.D. show up, preaching about how "Year Zero" is upon the world. (The M.A.D. actually showed up way earlier than this, but I couldn't think of how to insert them into the wiki smoothly until now. All you need to know is that they have been showing up for quite a while, which will make the ending a lot more clear.) When Year Zero arrives, every version of the Eternal will erupt from the soul pill and come back, making the party's effort fruitless. Six explains that there's only one more Eternal to kill, and if they do it quick, Year Zero will never happen. Seeing as how this is probably the best option, the party travels through time to a desert covered land. Within this time period they come across a mummy-esque version of the Eternal, which the party tried their best to slay. However, before they could deliver the final blow, A flash of light slices the Eternal in half, killing him instantly. In the dust of the Eternal stood Six, with a full soul pill in his hands. He begins to talk, and it goes a little like this: Hello again, mortals. For the past few months, you have been under the assumption that I was a wrongly accused prisoner who wanted nothing more than to aid you in your quest to defeat the eternal. Of course, this was all just a cunning ruse. I mean, really, did you honestly think such a skillful tactician would need the help of others to break out of prison? For god’s sake, I’ve traveled through time! Something like this isn’t hard for me! And yet nobody ever questioned what time I came from. What a shame. I was the one who created the soul pill for the purposes of collecting the soul pieces for myself, and you imbeciles fell for it. And now that I have the full power of the Eternal in my hands, I shall unleash it on a helpless population! Your spells and worthless weapons are mere play-toys compared to the hellfire I’m about to unleash! You thought the real enemy of this story was the M.A.D., but as their name might tell you, they were Merely A Distraction. As long as I could get your little party to fight them, you were always preoccupied! For you see, I was helping you foil their plans until Year Zero so that when the time came, I would seize control of the Eternal’s power and live forever! Once it strikes Midnight, I will be unbeatable, and total power shall be mine! I give you mortals two options. You can either give up and submit to me as your new savior, or I’ll have no choice but to kill you. And let me make it clear, I will show no mercy. Oh, and by the way… I’ve completely shut down the object. So if you were thinking about escaping back home to heal, you are sorely mistaken. Six placed the soul pill on his forehead, turning into a warped version of himself before vanishing. However, the object behind them begins to tremble and shake, and Cirice, Leo and Benjamin Breeg emerge from it, intending to help in the final fight. The party eventually goes to find Six, assuming he is in the large pyramid the eternal was in. Much to their dismay, Six was behind ''the pyramid, and had grown to a gargantuan size, grabbing Leo and Benjamin in his hands. Before he could kill one of them, Cirice stopped him, challenging him to a fight, which caused Tim to panic and bury himself in the sand. The party fought powerfully, and Marthose (M.J.'s character) threw an orb at Six that he was told would kill any enemy instantly (he got this earlier in a dungeon, trust me). It engulfs Six in a puff of orange smoke, but doesn't kill him. As he takes off to go through the object before he can be killed, the object gets encased in an orange force-field, making Six unable to use it. As he's having a mental breakdown, screaming about how he controlled everything in the world, Jack Daniel delivers the killing blow, making Six shatter into a million pieces. Once dead, the object begins to glow purple, symbolizing that it can make one more trip home. Everyone uses it, and once home, the object shatters as well. As the party begins to celebrate, Tim points out that he's starting to fade away to dust. This is because kobolds live in a magical cave, and once he was outside for too long, he lost the magic of the cave keeping him alive. With a tearful goodbye, he finally fades to dust, crumbling on the ground. After this, a note flutters down from the sky, with morse code written on it. Once translated, it reads "WE ARE OFF TO NEVER NEVER LAND", segmenting off to the next campaign. Pop Culture References The inspiration for Six comes from the songs "The Prisoner", "Hollowed be thy Name" and "Number of the Beast" by Iron Maiden. In terms of actual personality, he shares similarities with Bill Cipher. The inspiration for Cirice comes from the song of the same name by Ghost. However, the interesting thing is that unlike Six's songs where one should imagine them being sung from the perspective of the character in question, the song Cirice should be sung from Six's perspective. This actually foreshadows the ending, hence the line ''"Now there is nothing between us, from now our merge is '''Eternal."''' The setup for the fight with Cirice's deity comes from the song "The Thing That Should Not Be" by Metallica. Benjamin Breeg comes from the song "The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg" by Iron Maiden. Leo's name comes from a character from the Ayn Rand book "We the Living". His personality comes from the commonly used bard stereotype of "The bard who flirts with everything". However, to slightly subvert this trope, it's revealed that Leo is actually gay. Instead of only being sleazy with females, he's just relatively kind to most male characters.